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Warner hopeful feds won't feel a budget 'jolt'

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)

Soon-to-be senior Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has been in the thick of recent federal
appropriations battles. He led the original Gang of Six that tried to get a
bipartisan deal on the budget going last year. Now, he's back at it, trying to
head off sequestration. Warner says that, in spite of how it may seem, lawmakers
understand the dangers of the fiscal cliff.

"There is an enormous recognition of the consequences to our economy if we go over
the cliff," Warner told The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily
Kopp Monday. "I think in terms of our federal workers, the idea that we
would once again have some dramatic jolt that would result from the sequestration
cuts, which are the most inappropriate cuts, the least thoughtful approach,
would
be horrible."

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are currently
involved in negotiations to reach a bipartisan deal.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)

As someone who has been pursuing a bipartisan fiscal solution for 2-1/2 years,
Warner said large numbers of supporters from both parties want to be part of this
discussion and are willing to support a balanced approach that both raises more
revenues and recognizes that entitlement programs have got to be made viable over
the long term.

Warner said he thinks there's a way to start with the tax rates higher and then
reform downward.

The bipartisan Gang of Six, Warner said, had a $4 trillion plan based on the
Simpson-Bowles Plan around the debt ceiling.

"That's still our framework that includes additional revenues, that includes
entitlement reforms, that includes additional cuts on domestic defense and
mandatory programs," Warner said. "The challenge has been that … if you change
your baselines, it does have dramatic effects, so we've been trying to do that."

The group continues to meet and share ideas. The goal right now, according to
Warner, is to not get in the way of any ongoing negotiations between Obama and
Boehner.

"One of the challenges, particularly in the aftermath of the election is, even if
you've got a great plan, it may be hard for the leaders on both sides to
immediately agree," Warner said. "So, if we have to take the first few whacks to
narrow the playing field so that the Speaker and the President … can get us faster
and quicker to a 'yes,' that may be some value. But we'll have to see how this
will continue the leadership discussion and play out."

Warner said he thinks a budget deal would do more for job growth and to spur this
economy than any specific program President Obama or Republican candidate Mitt
Romney presented in their campaigns.

"And, it will do enormous amount of value in terms of restoring America's
confidence, particularly as we go into the very important retail holiday season
that the folks they've hired are actually going to put country over partisan
interests," he said.

Beyond sequestration, many federal employees are concerned about the continuing
resolution, which the current Congress pushed back to March 2013 for
consideration. Warner hopes Congress will resolve the matter and break its pattern
of repeatedly turning to CRs rather than passing an actual budget.

"Every time we start and stop the federal government, the largest enterprise in
the world, we waste millions and millions of dollars," Warner said. "Nothing is a
crazier business proposition than running the federal government on three-, six-
and nine-month continuing resolutions. It's insane because you can't plan. If
you're a contractor, you don't know if that contract will be there. If you're in
the federal government itself, a federal employee, your programs you can't move
forward on. So, from a plain efficiency and cost-savings standpoint, we need to
get four-year appropriations bills."